Why I ❤️ Optics: Joel Robison, Conceptual Photographer

Joel Robison is a Canadian conceptual portrait photographer and digital artist currently living in Hampshire, UK. He relies on Adobe Photoshop and Boris FX Optics to help create his playful imagery and loves sharing his work with people across the globe, motivated by an interest in storytelling and self-expression through art. 

His clients include Coca-Cola, Heineken, Microsoft, Google, FIFA, Yahoo, Adobe, Oprah Magazine, Marriott, ArcAngel, Trevillion, PhotoNews Canada, and many more. During 2013/2014, he worked exclusively with Coca-Cola and FIFA as the lead photographer and voice of social media for the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola, during which he travelled to and photographed more than 80 countries over 9 months. Follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

Take It Slowly

How did you first get into photography?

Growing up, I always wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be an animator at Disney specifically, and didn’t have a lot of exposure to photography aside from studio portraits and landscape work. After college, when I started working in the school system, I realized I missed creating as a hobby and started picking up different mediums to see what fit, and nothing really clicked. Then by chance, I stumbled across Flickr (pre-Instagram days!). I was really fascinated by the people sharing their work there, so I bought a used camera from eBay and started teaching myself how to use it. Then I started playing around with Photoshop, trying to turn the sketches and ideas I had into photo manipulations instead of drawings. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked!

Teaching and educating artists is a passion of mine. Throughout my career, I have instructed over a thousand students worldwide in a series of photography workshops aimed at building a creative portfolio, developing a unique creative voice, and setting up a photography business. I also teach an online course delivered to students around the world, designed to develop each student’s creative eye and portfolio.

What type of stories do you like to tell with your photos?

I’m an endless optimist. I like to infuse my work with themes of hope, whimsy, wonder, and curiosity. I like to believe the world is filled with little moments of magic if we just pause and observe, so I try to create work that is a blend of reality and those tiny glimmers of light and good.

Passage Through The Pages

Your photos are whimsical, dreamy, and beautiful. Where do you draw creative inspiration from? 

When I started photography, I relied a lot on my creative inspirations like Lewis Carroll, Walt Disney, and other really creative people. Over the years, I’ve spent more time exploring my own creativity and finding inspiration in how I connect my own emotions to specific visual touchstones. This has given me a really unique way to get inspired by current events, my own life experiences, and what I’m thinking about, and connect them to visuals that allow me to tell that story in my style. I get inspired by the tiniest things. It can be the colours of autumn leaves on the ground or how things look when viewed from a lower or high perspective. I spend a lot of time walking, running, and daydreaming. It gives me the opportunity to let my mind filter through everything. 

What type of photo editing/manipulation tasks do you look to a plugin like Optics to help with? Do you use Optics in Photoshop only? Lightroom? Standalone? 

I use Optics in Photoshop. I tend to only use Photoshop in my editing, so having Optics as a plugin is hugely useful! I look for plugins that enhance my storytelling through the editing it provides. I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want the finished images to look like, but having a really visual plugin like Optics allows me to test things out,  build the adjustments slowly to help tighten up my editing, and take it in new directions as well. 

Life Lines

Which Optics effects do you like most — and why? 

I think I’m mostly drawn to the lighting/glow effects and the diffusion and blur effects (at least right now!) I use a lot of light and glowing elements in my work, and the controls and features that Optics has for lights, light rays, glowing particles, and other effects are absolutely perfect. 

Being able to add light rays with a click and have them be in the right place, with the right balance of light, is a game-changer. Having the diffusion and blur features has also helped me take my work in a dreamier direction. Using some of the fog and mist features to add a bit of intrigue and softness has given me lots of new ideas for what I can do with my work. 

Before learning Optics, how did you create effects like glows and lens flares? Have you used other photo plugins? 

I’ve never really used any other plugins. I’ve done everything by hand in Photoshop. So lens flares were either brushes or overlays that I had to adjust for each image. Glow effects were usually multiple layers with different blending modes stacked on top of each other to get the effect that I wanted. The Optics plugin makes both of those so much more efficient. It also has more options than I would have thought about on my own. 

Fictional Foe

If you could have only one Optics effect, which would it be — and why?

Hmmm, I’m going to say the glint effect in light settings. I like to use it to bring more focus to glowing elements or sources of light. It adds just the right amount of magic to the image. I definitely spend a lot of time playing with the variations within the light section of the plugin. 

What are your top 3 reasons why photographers like yourself should use Optics?

I would say the first reason is that it’s filled with an incredible amount of useful tools and features that can make editing so much more interesting and fun.

It’s a really visual way to make adjustments. I really like to see what the effect will do before I apply it, and Optics is perfect for that.

The third reason is simply the quick EZMask. It’s genius and effective! 

What’s your best pro tip to artists new to Optics? 

Just go in and have fun. Add different effects, build up the layers slowly with low-opacity layers, and see where the options take you. A lot of times, I think I know where I want an image to go, and then when I get into Optics, I’m able to try new things that I wouldn’t have thought of. I almost always prefer the new direction! 

Hanging in the Balance

What’s your favorite project or image you’ve ever worked on — and why?

That’s a hard question, as I tend to only work on projects that I really connect with. Still, I would have to say that one of my favourite projects was working with a talented poet and friend, Hussain Manawer, to create a collection of images to coincide with his first book launch. 

We had a gallery show at Blenheim Palace outside Oxford in the UK. It opened up a lot of new avenues and ideas for what is possible with my work. I illustrated all the photographs included in the book and designed the cover, which went on to become a Sunday Times Best Seller. 

In addition to being a conceptual photographer/digital artist, you’re also an outspoken advocate for men’s mental health. Why is it important to you? What role did photography and creating art play in helping you overcome depression? 

Photography has certainly been a voice for me when I’ve struggled in the past. When I was first getting into photography, there wasn’t as much awareness or support for mental health. I was really afraid to tell people that I was struggling, so I used my photography to say it. 

Looking back at some of those images is extremely hard because I can see how much I was really going through a darker time. But photography allowed me to voice it, and it also pushed me to get outside, work through it, spend time with myself, and learn to be ok with whatever I was feeling.

After losing friends and family to suicide, I started working for a men’s mental health and suicide prevention charity because I felt that I had to do more than just talk about it on my own. I wanted to be part of something that is changing the conversation for the better. It’s been rewarding and challenging to work in this area, because it is such a needed service, but I know that I’m making a difference. I’m able to show people that they can use art to work through things in a really healthy way.